Providing a fresh source of water for chickens, ducks, guinea hens and other fowl is a significant concern for many farmers. The simplest method of providing fresh water involves placing buckets, bowls or troughs of water into the pen, brooder or other holding area. This simple approach has been used for many years, but it requires regular flushing, cleaning and re-filling of the bucket, bowl or trough. If the bucket, bowl or trough is not flushed, thoroughly cleaned and re-filled on a regular basis the stagnant water becomes dirty, can be contaminated with fecal matter and can be overrun by bacteria and insects that can transmit serious diseases to the fowl. This is of particular concern for young fowl that are kept and raised in a brooder containing a fresh water source where the young fowl are more likely to soil the water source and are more susceptible to disease. Additionally, buckets, bowls and troughs of water can freeze in cold temperatures requiring a time consuming process of thawing or breaking up the frozen water to give the fowl access to drinkable water.
Some have proposed an article that provides a self contained water source that can be released through a valve into a common trough when actuated by the fowl. One such device is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,933 to Van der Veer and comprises a float operated actuater for a drinking nozzle that is manually actuated to release water into a drinking trough. This approach suffers in that once the water is released to the common trough it can become contaminated with dirt, bacteria and fecal matter.
Other have proposed an article which is completely self contained and provides water to when actuated by the fowl. Articles have existed at least since the 1940's for providing water to fowl through a self contained system. These systems generally make use of a valve or a series of valves which can be actuated by the fowl to release a flow of water.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,486,729 to Beckley describes a poultry-watering device comprising a water pipe connected to a low pressure water supply system with a series of fitted fixtures that are sensitive to the contact of the fowl.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,322,101 to Eagles et al. describes a nozzle having a nipple that is attached to an unknown source of water. An animal contacts the nipple, opening the valve and permitting water to flow out of the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,977 to Godshalk describes a poultry watering device comprising a rigid valve body member inserted through a port in an elongated conduit. The fowl pushes upwardly with its beak against the valve to unseat the valve element and permit the flow of water through the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,221 to Novey describes a nipple type waterer and valve having an end fitting accessible to an animal with the tip being in the form of a nipple that can be displaced laterally to open the valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,537 to Steudler, Jr. describes a nipple drinker including a passage, a ball valve which closes the passage when seated and a ball valve actuating stem having a head and a pin. Fowl can actuate a stem to unseat the ball valve to initiate water flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,881 to Thompson describes a watering valve for birds and small animals having a spring biased metering pin with a tubular actuator stem. The bird or animal applies a demand force to the actuator stem to displace the stem and initiate water flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,657 to Schumacher et al. describes a drinking valve having a casing, an acceptance part, a connecting part and a snap-in connection.